Spring Bloom Colors the Pacific Near Hokkaido

In the northwest Pacific Ocean, the Oyashio Current flows down out of the Arctic, past Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Around the latitude of Hokkaido, Japan, it begins to veer eastward and converges with the warmer Kuroshio Current, flowing into the area from the south.

This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite from May 21, 2009, illustrates how the convergence of these two currents affect phytoplankton (the microscopic plant-like creatures that form the base of the marine food web).

NASA image by Norman Kuring, MODIS Ocean Color Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.